WARNING: Before you rush out and buy any device w/HDMI you might want to read this. (1 Viewer)

[DaViD Boulet]

Of course, if they muck up the DD lossless with re-balancing of EQ and rear levels for "home theater" and add in dialog normalization and other "features" there's a good chance that DTS would still sound better.

All those years of listing to movie soundtracks more-or-less "dumped" onto laserdisc and they sounded just GREAT, and then the minute the studios start to "fix" them for home theater on 5.1 DD everything started to sound wrong. At least DTS soundtracks still tend to take a more processing-free approach...but none of this is the format's choice...it's the choice of the person mastering the audio.

With crappy processing a lossless 24/96 PCM signal can sound plenty lame. Let's hope that the audio engineers LEAVE THINGS ALONE. And THX is to blame as much as anyone in this...they started that trend by recommending that the studios "fix" the mutli-channel theatricl soundtracks to make them "optimized" for home theater.

Thought:

Funny how all the reference 5.1 home-video soundtracks (the DTS from the Jurrasic Park and Casper LDs, and the AC-3 from the Phantom Menance Japanese LD) all were *theatrical* mixes that had not been "dumbed down" for DVD.



Why doesn't anyone ever talk about this?



Yes, if DD lossless tracks get "dumbed down" but DTS preserves the theatrical mix, you can bet that I'll be talking about how much better DTS sounds on Blu-ray...






Scott,

I'd wait to buy anything until they put 1080P thru-put on the Sony SXRD television. That would be one SWEET set to buy.

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Actually that is incorrect. DTS is just as scalable in bitrates and resolution downward as Dolby Digital is. The DTS technology has the advantage of going higher in both bitrate and resolution whereas Dolby's is not.

As I understand it, Dolby's downconverting processing must be done in the HD-DVD player or the Blu-Ray player to make Dolby True-HD into a data reduced non-MLP stream and into an AC-3 stream (because AC-3 needs to be sent to the external decoder (legacy pre-amp/receiver) and then be decoded to PCM in that device. DTS would need no such conversion because the "core" technology that we've enjoyed for years will just be sent out of the HD player's S/PDIF coax or TOSlink (optical).

Now it seems these new lossless technologies (DTS-HD and Dolby T-HD) will be decoded in the HD player and the PCM signal will be sent uncompressed through HDMI to the pre-amp's/receiver's DACs (Digital-to-Analogue Converters). It is my hope that high-end pre-amps will start to use the best audio DACs as well as use dual-differential balanced outputs (this has always been my gripe and why I've never invested thousands into a pre-amp that performs worse than a higher-end stereo preamp). But that is another story.

Mike

(P.S. Dave - no, I don't have the SXRD RPTV - I've just calibrated them).

 

[Dan Hitchman]

It sounds like Sony may delay their first Blu-Ray table top player for HDMI 1.3 support. Hopefully, it doesn't put an indefinite hold on the player.

Dan

 

[Dave Moritz]

HDMI Licensing Responds to Microsoft HD-DVD 1080p Issue
Tuesday, February 14 2006


HDMI Licensing Responds to Microsoft HD-DVD 1080p Issue


In a recent article in this space, Microsoft’s HD DVD program manager Sage Schreiner implied that the failure of many HD DVD players to output 1080p content is due to a limitation in the HDMI standard. This is incorrect. As the president of HDMI Licensing, LLC – the organization that licenses the HDMI Specification – I would like to set the record straight.

All versions of the HDMI Specification support 1080p/60Hz. HDMI has supported 1080p from the day HDMI version 1.0 was released in 2002. 1080p/60Hz requires a pixel transmission rate of 148.5MHz, which fits well within the current 165MHz rate of HDMI single-link.

As with many functions that HDMI enables (such as DVD-Audio and SACD) it is up to the manufacturer to choose to implement 1080p. Until recently, many manufacturers have chosen not to do so. They have faced little pressure to support 1080p, as there has been little or no 1080p content available (all the HD content available on broadcast is only 720p/1080i). However, this landscape is likely to change in the next year.

In fact, there are already many HDMI products on the market supporting 1080p input or output. For example, Hewlett-Packard is shipping a 56" 1080p DLP TV that supports 1080p input, and Marantz and Denon have been shipping DVD players with 1080p output.

Given that we are seeing many electronics manufacturers release chips that support 1080p (HDMI receivers and transmitters, video processors, ADCs, video decoders, etc.), it is safe to say that we will see many more products supporting 1080p this year.

Leslie Chard
President
HDMI Licensing, LLC

 

[Ken_F]

Seems odd to make a full article out of something a Microsoft program manager implied.

Be that as it may, a Microsoft executive a few pay grades above Mr. Schreiner responded to those comments right here.

 

[John H Ross]

All of this (particularly the whole 1080p debate) is even more of a reason to wait a couple of years IMHO. Hopefully in 2 or 3 years we'll have affordable displays capable of displaying true 1080p, plus discs that have overcome the inevitable "first phase" problems.

JR

 

[John H Ross]

From THE DIGITAL BITS:



Ah, see how they reward early adopters!!

JR

 

[DaViD Boulet]

The later is the truth. This has already been confirmed be several groups as well as by many people who *are* passing 1080P 60Hz via HDMI in its current form.

Toshiba is just cutting corners.

 

[Rhett_Y]

If anything I could see both disks failing or becoming a sever niche market............ Good god do you really think all this talk with numbers is going to appeal to the masses.. You have to replace your tv to accept 1080p with hdmi 1.3 and have a receiver etc... before you can enjoy all the benefits of the new disk... but wait, some of the new players only do 1080i....and on on on..

I can see both camps shooting themselves in the foot on this one.. To many numbers and hoops a person has to jump through.... Can you see the sales person as circuit city/best buy (yes lots and lots of people shop there for the new gear) explaining this to the new customer... then to only tell them, we don't have any tv's that do 1080p........ :frowning: :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

Hell I won't be surprised if this goes the way of laser disk and in a few years this whole project will be pushed to the clearance section................

Hell look how many of us are arguing over what/who/when etc and the damn things haven't even hit the store room shelves. This is becoming ridicules.......

R~

 

[John H Ross]

Agreed. It seems those PSP movie things are on the way out too.